I suppose I am one of those who believe that "Intervention is a part of God's very nature based upon His grace and mercy."
It is how I live my life. I depend on the complete assurance that God will care for all my needs as well as the needs of all His children.
This does not "get me off the hook" so to speak with regards to praying and seeking a deeper relationship with God, however, I am
fully content with my total dependence upon HIM.
Like you, I have no doubts that the Lord is the only One upon whom we can possibly rely and trust. I so appreciate the challenging thoughts. It all helps me for better formulate descriptors and overall analysis for better wording on how to describe an understanding for the Lord's ways in how He deals with His creation and His people within this creation.
I believe I was divinely "plucked/extracted" from a situation that ( had I remained in ) would have caused absolute devastation for me.
I believe that God intervened in housing for me in the form of allowing me to return to my prior residence on the lake. My apartment that
I left for 8 months was FREE for me to return to. There is no way that should have happened but it did.
I believe that God intervened with my heart to help me accept a heart-breaking situation that would NORMALLY have caused me deep despair.
I believe that INTERVENTION is as FLUID and ALIVE as God Himself.. and I also believe that a majority of the time we don't even see or feel it.
All of this had me giving thanks unto the Lord for all His provisions in your life.
The topic of Godly protection from the enemy is something that happens moment to moment. The warfare that occurs over God's children is so fierce and violent, yet we as Christians are able to connect with God in such a way that we are given PERFECT PEACE.
This is another avenue for this discussion that I will address further down.
I suppose I could spend all day digging deeper and seeking MORE. If I look at my situation today, I would tell you that my spiritual health is the BEST it's ever been because of the recent sufferings I have had to undergo. My life ebbs and flows like the tide. Inclusive in this are the SEASONS that we all go through. God's intervention is ALWAYS and CONSTANTLY at work.
Amen. You're living the reality resulting from the promise for how ALL things work for good to those who love God and are called according to His promise.
I stated to you earlier that I don't ask God for many things. It's because I have learned to live contently with what I have and where I'm at. My prayers are mostly for others. As far as Intersession goes, I am not gifted with "standing in the gap" for things. I believe this is a gift and I don't think ALL have it.
When you pray for others, you're brandishing the greatest weapon available to any if us for standing in the gap.
What I do practice on a constant basis is WORSHIP. It's my life. I am constantly in AWE of GOD. I'm not just saying that because it sounds good. I am literally like a kid in a candy store. I am fully AWARE that God is MAGNIFICENT. This is something that seems to have been gifted to me after my healing in the summer of 2021. I call it a child-like wonder. I'm not sure what to call it... but I am filled with JOY to overflowing... and so my life is simply a SONG of LOVE to the GOOD SHEPHERD who rescued me from the fowler's snare. There is NO striving when one is in a position of gratitude and thanksgiving.
I've taught for years that the words Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well are words that so few ever understand these days. When He stated that the only worship acceptable before the Father in that day of which He spoke, He stated that it would be don in "spirit and in truth." Those are words pointing to a ways of life, not some ritualistic nonsense that still buzzes around inside the dead walls of buildings fashioned by the hands of men. Those words describe a way of life to be lived daily, moment to moment. That is the ONLY means by which our worship becomes something ALIVE, not predicated upon the shed blood of dead animals at a temple, or dead, ritualistic rhetoric, incantations and actions.
That relates directly to this topic, in that worship and praise (which are not the same thing) are what are reactionary in this world; in how we react to the things of God in our daily lives. Worship is a way of life that should never cease at any time in any given moment of our day. Living lives of worship is a part of what Paul addressed when he spoke of such things as the need for us to "pray without ceasing."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Rejoice evermore.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
And again... the words have failed me.
I absolutely understand the invitation to dig deeper. I already shared with you that you have challenged me to do just that... however there is a peace that comes with that... It's like an invitation to go to a fancy dinner. WE dress up... and we anticipate something good. I believe knowledge is for the GOOD of us. However... when it turns into a TASK or CHORE... then it loses it's beauty and becomes simply an obligation.
Amen.
I have truly enjoyed our conversations... and your gift of music is WOW just WOW. I feel your deep urgency to share and challenge others, but I also feel that perhaps what YOU are called to study and do is not something that everyone else can handle to the same degree.
Given that music is God's creation, He does indeed receive from me the praise for the gits He gives to us.
When it comes to challenge to others for the deeper things of the Lord and His word, I like to reiterate that going to the depths for any one of us, regardless of gifting, intelligence or anything else, it all starts with the Lord leading each and every one of us to those depths. None of us gets there by ourselves.
When I say I accept your challenge to dig deeper... for me that simply means taking quiet time to BE STILL and KNOW that HE is GOD. That is my answer to EVERYTHING. I don't know what a normal Christian life SHOULD look like. I only know that my life was filled with deep sorrow and despair for DECADES upon DECADES and now... since my healing of depression ( summer of 2021 ) I am FILLED to overflowing with JOY.
Being still. Yes. That's the key. We don't hear from the Lord the deeper things when we hustling and bustling through life's many demands. That's why the Lord's instructions mean what they say when He clearly stated:
Matthew 6:6 But
thou, when
thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast
shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
I don't routinely seek to pray in the company of others, lusting to hear their prayers and how eloquently THEY pray, nor to impress them with the things I can come up with. No. When it comes to prayer, it's strictly between the Lord and myself, and in those moments He speaks to us in ways that are beyond words. Even though He knows what we are going to pray before we even utter a word, THAT is the essence of relationship when we intentionally go before Him, and pour out our hearts to Him. Public prayer...well, that's fine and dandy for others, but for me, I seek to do exactly what He commanded. It's not reactionary, it's not interventive, it's not even doing anything at all apart from focusing our minds and hearts upon He alone who has already caused ALL things to work for our good who love Him, both past and future.
You see, when He promised in His word that all things work for good to all who love Him, I'm not seeing that as a promise that He's going to apply Himself even more to having to do more and more reactionary intervention. In other words, when it comes to the Power of His Words, that Power is more real than this keyboard I'm using to enter these words. He
spoke the universe and the stars into existence rather than grinding away in some heavenly machine that cranked out physical space, time and substance until the volume of the universe and the matter within it was at the level of His design. The Power behind His words is what commands all from before the beginning:
Luke 4:32, 36
32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for
his word was with power. ...
36 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word [is] this! for with
authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
1 Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God [is] not in word, but
in power.
2 Corinthians 6:7 By the word of truth, by
the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and
upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Amen, and amen! He doesn't labor with sweat on His brow (so to speak). Yes, He works unto this very day, as Jesus indicated to the complaining Pharisees, but the idea that it was what we, in our fallen state, tend to think, no.
My prime motivation to all of this is to try and help others to see beyond the mere assumptions our little minds tend to fixate upon when reading the Bible, or receiving something from the Lord in prayer. The Hollywoodesque tendencies in our thinking to see even the Lord and His ways of dealing with mankind, that is one of many corrections I am trying to get across in all this. The enemy makes use of our assumptions, to apply them against us to the point that we no longer recognize the true Lord and God of our salvation. Satan operates on the basis of the subtle and mundane so as to not pique our senses to the point of alarm and defensiveness. Does that make sense?
I think there is something to be said about a soul who DELIGHTS in simplicity. That little black sheep that you see in my avatar. That is me... He rescued me... He loves me... He sings over me... He left the flock to come find me. He snatched me from the enemy and said SHE IS MINE. I don't know what more I can offer than my total surrender and praise. I believe this is what He desires from me.
You are so gifted MM. You have a deep deep desire to pull closer to God and that is indeed most pleasing to HIM.
It is to the Lord that all the glory and praise rests. Life would be not at all worth living if it were not for the Lord and the Power of His Words toward us. The promises He has made toward us are absolutely empowered in all of Heaven and creation, and nothing can negate what He has already designed into all our lives.
Thank you again for your response. It pushes us all to greater depths.
MM
